Chance of a Lifetime
by Kainazoo
Summary: Noboru Soma, a former lawyer turned homeless, finds a chance to redeem himself when his best friend is invited to the LIAR GAME. This is a totally different bracket from Akiyama & co, but the games played will be the same.
1. Opportunity

**DISCLAIMER: All copyrighted characters belong to their respective owners. No money is being made out of this work. Please do not distribute without permission.**

* * *

**Author's notes**

_Okay, I think the games played in the LG are great, and that with an other set of characters, they can be played in an other way, with alternate scenarios. This gave me the motivation to write this fanwork._

_This takes place in an other bracket of the Liar Game. The characters will never encounter Nao, Akiyama, etc._

_Some major differences are to be expected : if the games played are the same, the tone and the characters will be different._

* * *

_**Chapter One : Opportunity**_

A ringtone.  
"Oh god, I overslept" says the man. He then reaches the pre-paid cellphone "Yes , hello?"

"Hello yourself! How much have you gathered, Yamato?"

"Uh, nothing, I just woke up.", said Yamato

"..."

"Sorry, Noboru!"

"Great. Meet me at the usual meeting park" concluded Noboru, before hanging up.

Yamato Hazuki looks at the time. "9:00 am, huh? Let's get to work"

* * *

Noboru Soma also hung up, and went back to the subway. He picked up his guitar, paid the  
ticket. He needed to pay the ticket, just as a safety measure. He couldn't afford a fine or getting arrested.

Soma positioned himself in the middle of the main passageway of the station and started playing.

He has been homeless for 3 years now. He was a successful lawyer, and was with his friend Shinga a future leader of the firm he  
worked with.

"Thank you, and have a great day" he said to a passenger dropping some coins, while still playing the guitar.

Recession was not a problem for him. Quite the contrary, his firm saw that as an opportunity. There's no crisis in the law business.  
And that was Soma's downfall. His best friend Shinga got wind of classified information regarding a shipping firm about to go bankrupt. He arranged a scam where the shipping firm paid huge billables to Soma's firm for a fake lawsuit, which would seal the shipping firm's fate. There was a leak and the scam was found out.

"The rush hour is over" thought Soma. "Better join with Yamato"

The paper trail pointed to Soma. Before he knew it, he was fired and disbarred. The lawsuit that ensued took the last shred of money he had left.  
His fiancée left him during the trial, and at the age of 34, Soma was finished.

Three years later, Soma is a veteran homeless in Tokyo. Still as smart as ever, he desperatly tries to get his life back.  
His only contact with his former life is with a former colleague, Nozomi, who treats him to lunch once in a while.

And today, Soma will get his chance of a lifetime...

* * *

Soma left the subway to the meetup point with his homeless friend Yamato Hazuki, who is talking with someone.

"_Still asking for money, uh?_" thought Soma. He planned to play chess with him. When he started three years ago, Soma vowed to  
never drink alcohol and find creative and various ways to earn money. He wanted to become good enough to sit on the street and get  
paid for Chess duels. Music, games, speech, smile. Evertything was under Soma's control to maximise his profits.

"Hey, Yamato. Hello, sir."

"Hello." responds the man. He has a mask. "You must be Soma-san"

"Indeed I am. What's with the mask?"

"My name is Suzuki, i'm Hazuki-san's handler."

"Handler?"

Yamato steps in. "He gave me this.."

**Mr Yamato Hazuki,**

**Congratulations!**

**You are one of the 1 in 100 000 people who have been entered to the amazing LIAR GAME TOURNAMENT!**

Yamato continued by showing me a box. Full of cash. With another paper.

**Thank you for participating in the LIAR GAME!**  
**By breaking the seal on the box, you have formally acknowledged your desire to play the LIAR GAME**  
**...**  
**You may use any means necessary. Please seize your opponent's MONEY...**  
**...30 days...**  
**What will be collected is the MONEY that was given to both players at the start of this game...**

**You can obtain at most a reward of 100 000 000 yen**  
**...if you lose...**  
**we will get our money back by any means**.

"Wait, what?"

Suzuki interrupted "Given your current situation, I advise you not to spend it. We will be in touch" He then leaves.

Hazuki is scared. "Who are these people?" he asks with a trembling voice.

"I don't know. As a former lawyer, I must tell you that this "seal breaking" agreement is bogus. There's nothing holding you"

Hazuki has sparkles in his eyes. "We should use it to go to the nearest motel and settle in. Then, with an adress, find a job. Awesome!"

"However"

"Uh?"

"People able to lend 100M yen to multiple players are not to be underestimated. I wouldn't be surprised if they were above the law, and maybe connections to the police."

"Oh, yeah... So what do we do?" Hazuki was worried.

Soma was in turn the one with sparkles in his eyes.

"Why don't we just play the game?"

"You mean, steal money for our opponent?" You can tell that Yamato is disturbed.

"Yes."

Hazuki wasn't a shark like Soma. But he knew better. One year on the streets changes you. He saw the opportunity.

"I'll play. But this stays between the two of us. The temptation will be too big for our other friends."

"Okay. Then, the first issue...don't steal money from the stash, Yamato"

"It's about the serials, right?"

"Yes. If you replace a 1000 yen bill by coins or other bills, in regards of the rules, it's not allowed".

"Indeed"

Hazuki was amazed. Soma was the best ally he could find in his homeless circle.

"Our opponent will probably have a house." thought Hazuki aloud.

"And that's probably where he will hide his money." Soma was smiling...

"And where should we hide our cash?"

"Not in one single place. We should separate it in ten 10M stacks. Where? Well, we know some well hidden spots in the Tokyo area, don't we?"

"Why separate it? This means we will have more chances of losing our money!"

"Yes, but if we lose a stack, we can still fight back. And we avoid total defeat this way."

Soma and Hazuki spent the rest of the day hiding the cash. The night was hard, because they had less time to ask for money and had to eat less. But they were motivated. If they hold a month like this, they can both win their lives back.

And three days later, Suzuki came back.

"You are hard to find, Hazuki-san. Here's your instruction card, with the whereabouts of your opponent"

The first game was about to start.

* * *

**Feedback is always appreciated.**


	2. Man to Man

**Noboru Soma, a homeless man who used to be a lawyer, sees a way to get his life back when his homeless friend Yamato Hazuki is invited to the LIAR GAME.**

* * *

_**Chapter Two : Man to Man**_

The card showed a buffed-up, young man in his twenties.  
**Jiro Utsumi, 26 years old. **There's his adress, too.

"Know him?"

"Nah, that doesn't ring a bell. So, Soma, what's the gameplan here?"

Yamato Hazuki was never really the strategist type. He's not too shabby, but he learned during the previous year that Soma's cunning plans meant results.

"Well, we should go to his house and gather some useful data. His hobbies, his work, when can we hit him..."

"Sure. Now that we have hidden the money, we can focus on offense."

"Yeah, but I should warn you, hidding the money means the last day will be rough. We will have to go back to the ten hideouts while shaking off Utsumi"

An hour later, Hazuki and Soma were positioned in his alley. The neighborhood was filled with bars and nightclubs, and the streets were crowded, at anytime of the day or the night, and his apartment was on the 6th floor. Breaking in was not an option.

"Maybe he's here, maybe he's not. Let's wait in front of his house."

The two homeless men waited all day. At some point, Soma played the guitar and collected enough money for a simple meal. And at 10 p.m, Utsumi passed in the street. He stopped near Hazuki. He was bald, and even more jacked up than advertised. Physically, even alone, he could crush both his opponents.

"It's him" thought his homeless opponent.

However, Utsumi didn't recognize him. He gave him 300 yen and went to his apartment.

"This is not good" admitted Soma.

"Yeah. He's a decent man. It's gonna be hard to steal from him."

Hazuki was a kind man. After stopping his studies at the young age of 17, he found a job in a car factory. He eventually got married and had a beautiful young daughter. And last year, all that vanished. He was involved in a car accident with his wife - who was driving - and his child, playing with him. Yamato was the only survivor, and he spent two weeks in a hospital. He couldn't come back to his car factory after his tragedy, and wanted to change jobs. He wasn't able to.

Two minutes passed, and Utsumi rushed back of his house with the LGT card in his hand.  
He stopped again in front of Hazuki, and smiled.

"Oh, so YOU are my opponent! That is interesting...Sorry, Yamato Hazuki, but I play to win!"

He turns to Soma.

"And you are helping him, I see. Ahem...you are spying on me? Well as you can see, I live here, and you can't really break into my house, so there you have it."

"..."

"Huh, no response? Okay then, have a good cold night! I'll be in my bed."

Utsumi closed shut his door and left his opponents outside.

Hazuki changed his mind "Ok, I want to play now"

"You bet. Well we learned something..."

"Did we?"

"Well, his confidence. And look at his windows. They're wide open."

"So?"

"He has hidden 100 million yen somewhere. If it were in this house, do you think he would act like this?"

"He's maybe bluffing."

"Yes, but when he didn't know you were his opponent, he took his time to come back home. He feels secure here. I would bet his money is not at home."

"So where is it?"

"The second obvious choice would be his workplace. We are following him tomorrow when he wakes up"

The night was hard, with the constant pedestrian passing, and the nightclubs around. But the morning was harder.

* * *

"Wake up, guys." said Utsumi.

Hazuki grumbled, and woke up in a hurry when he saw his opponent ready.

"You want to follow me, don't you? Well, let's get going!"

"..."

Soma woke up as well, and at 9 am, Utsumi ended up in front of a fitness building. He turned to the duo and shouted from afar.  
"Hey guys, that's my job! I'm a fitness instructor and I work in a dozen fitness centers! See you!"

Yamato was shocked. How could he disclose so much detail about his life?  
Soma was perplexed as well, but you could see he was thinking about a plan.

"Let's play music in the subway, Yamato"

"You want to leave him alone?"

"Well, we have at least an hour before he can leave, so..."

And as Soma predicted, Utsumi left the building after his one-hour class. He took the subway to another center. This lasted all morning. At noon, Hazuki and Soma had spent all their money in subway tickets. Jiro Utsumi disappeared in a restaurant and came back with a hamburger.

"You know what this is, Hazuki? In the USA, they call it "Hamburger". It's awesome."

Utsumi was taking bites litteraly inches away from his opponent, who was starving. Hazuki was feeling  
a certain lack of respect from his opponent. Of course he knew what a hamburger was.

"Now. Where have you hidden the money."

"That's a stupid question" interrupted Soma.

"I didn't talk to you. Hazuki." Utsumi finished the last bite of the burger. "Where. Have. You. Hidden. The..."

"What, you're threatening me now? You won't dare to hit a poor homeless man in the middle of the street, no?"

Hazuki was also getting worked up. But Utsumi quickly turned and made a dash for Soma's guitar.

"Hey!" Soma tried to block the path but Utsumi was already through.

"That's a nice guitar. A nice source of income indeed." said the instructor, holding it. "I've never been the artist type.." He then crushed the guitar on the floor.

"No!" yelled Hazuki

"There's a whole month left. It's only day 3. Let's see how you will look in a few days..."

Utsumi quickly left the scene.

"How are we going to beat this guy? Forget that, how are we gonna survive!?" the player was scared.

"Don't worry. He wants us to starve and die off, but we learned a lot more about him than he did about us.  
And with what we know, I have a good plan to take him down."

The truce was over, and from now on it was free for all warfare.


	3. Overconfidence

_**Chapter Three : Overconfidence**_

It has been a week since the duel between Yamato Hazuki and Jiro Utsumi started. Yamato has requested the help of his homeless best friend Noboru Soma. Utsumi works un multiple fitness centers, and casually travels even though he's followed. During the third day, he broke Soma's guitar, his best income source.

Hazuki was sceptical. He and Soma were really having hard days since Soma lost his guitar, but Soma wanted to wait.

* * *

(back in day 3)

_"He wants us to die off. If he wants to strike back, it will probably be around day 15."_

_"So what should we do?"_

_"Take the initiative and attack around day 13"_

* * *

Soma's "attack" included at least a dozen homeless individuals, some are known to Hazuki, and some are total strangers. It was morning in  
day 13, and Soma had gathered a whole batallion.

"What's the plan, Soma?" asked an old toothless man.

"Some bobybuilding jock broke my guitar. I really want him to pay me back, and I found where he lives. We are going to follow him for a day"

Soma wasn't telling the truth, but this was to be expected. He couldn't tell his friends Hazuki was participating in a game to win 100 million yen. But they have already tried following Utsumi, and it ended badly.

This time, it was a young bald guy with bloodshot eyes who spoke. "By following, I guess you also mean to take care of him?"

"Well...if the situation calls for it, yeah." Soma was serious.

The 14-people group advanced...Hazuki was getting anxious. He didn't want to cause a scene in the middle of the street, let alone a fight.

"Don't worry, Yamato. It's just a trap."

"A trap?"

"Yes. This is the beginning of the plan. Punching him won't solve anything. But what we are doing here will win this game."

"Uh...and what is the plan? I mean, I'm the player here..."

"Oh, right, sorry. Listen up..."

"Oh! Yes, it can work." Hazuki was relieved.

The group ended up in front of Utsumi's appartment. He opened the door a few minutes later, armed with brass knuckles.

"Hazuki...you want revenge for last time? But tell me, you brought up the cavalry...I saw you from upstairs. If you want a fight, you got it!"  
He lifted his fists as if he was getting ready for a boxing match.

"Okay, who's first?"

Soma took a step forward.

"All of our friends are here! And for your proposition...don't be ridiculous...if the opponent has a weapon, it's no use going one by one. Everyone should attack at the same time."

As he finished his sentence, the whole group rushed at Utsumi. Soma and Hazuki stayed behind to watch the scene. Utsumi fended off the two first persons with two well placed punches, but he was quicky overwhelmed. Everyone grabbed him and he was stripped of his brass knuckles. He was on the ground when..

"STOP!" yelled Soma.

"We just wanted to prove a point, we don't want our friends hurt. We don't need to see you again." said Hazuki. "But we'll be keeping the brass knuckles."

Soma chuckled.

"Let's go."

Utsumi got up on his knees and held his head, raging...

"What now, Soma?"

"Now...we wait for him to do the obvious reaction."

* * *

That evening, Soma shared the second part of his plan with Hazuki.

"Okay. So, now we need to go, just the two of us, to one of the hideouts."

"It's about the serial numbers again, right?"

"Yes. We don't actually need to steal anything from Utsumi. We just need to make the LGT believe we did. Listen up..."

Soma whispered a few sentences to Hazuki's ear..and Hazuki nodded and smiled.

"So, what about the attack of this morning?"

"It's about two things. The first, we need to prove to him that we can own him physically if necessary, anytime of the month."  
"The second...we have brass knuckles now. Which is good, because when we are just the two of us, we are not strong enough."

"You assumed he would use a weapon and you wanted to steal it?"

"That's pretty much it, yeah."

Soma stood up and started walking.

"Well, should we go to the Hideout #4? It's not far from here."

"Yeah! And we will win this first round."

Soma and Hazuki marched in the dark night...

"..."

Twenty feet behind them, Utsumi started following them, too.


	4. Defeat

_**Chapter 4 : Defeat**_

Utsumi took his time to follow Soma and Hazuki. He was aware of his two opponents, as well as his surroundings. He was in an unknown neighborhood, and he needed to remember his steps, in case he needed to run away. He took notice of the nearest subway station.

Soma and Hazuki went behind a popular restaurant. There was no one there and it was one of their 10 hidden places.

* * *

_"It's a restaurant, and it needs to be clean every day" said Soma 13 days ago. _  
_"And there's another restaurant right next to this one. Which means the space between them is sure to never be used. We have a good hiding spot,_  
_and it will be easy to come back here and get back to public if we are followed"_

* * *

"Indeed, Soma. The money is intact." Hazuki took the bag containing 10 million yen. "Now, let's see the serials...OH NO"

Jiro is dashing to the duo! He stopped hiding the second he saw the money.

"UTSUMI!" yelled Hazuki

Soma reached in his vest for the brass knuckles, but was interrupted by a tackle. Utsumi knocked him out with two punches on the ground, along with crushing his head on the ground. He turned his head to Hazuki, running away to the main street.

"COME BACK HERE!" screamed the bodybuilded instructor.

Hazuki was already slow, carrying 10 million yen was too much to ask, Utsumi caught up very quickly. Hazuki tried to hit his opponent with the bag, but Utsumi kicked him before he could finish his swing motion. Hazuki was on the ground, and Utsumi ran away with the bag.

"noooooooOOOOOOOOO" cried Hazuki, quickly getting back on his feet and pursuing Utsumi.

However, Utsumi was too fast. He entered the subway station with his bag. Hazuki was too far away to catch up.

Once in the train station, Utsumi glanced around him. Everyone in the station was looking at him

(Damn, this money bag is weird. It looks exactly like I'm carrying money.)  
Jiro stopped to put the money bag inside his own backpack.

"_They might be here"_

Utsumi looked around him. No homeless man. Great.

He reached a station near a forest in the suburbs of Tokyo. He had hidden the whole 100 million out of town, in his old abandoned house.  
Now he had 110 million in his old bedroom.

_"I should disappear until day 30...Yes, I'll go to Nagano and cancel all my classes."_

Five hours later, Jiro Utsumi took the Shinkansen.

Day 15.

Day 20.

Day 25.

Day 29.

The last day.

Utsumi went to his old childood house and collected his money. He planned to go to his house, probably assieged by homeless man, and fight his way home. Instead, when he saw his apartement, no one was outside.

_"Inside, maybe?"_

No one was inside, too. Utsumi picked up his mail. Apparently, the money pickup would occur at 6.00 PM.

Two hours later, the door rang. Utsumi opened the door, to see three men wearing masks.

"We're from the Liar Game Offices. The game has reached his deadline, so we have come to retrieve the MONEY"

"Here!"

Utsumi gave his traveling bag, filled with money.

"Well then"

...

"Confirmation complete. Is this all?"

"Well, yeah, I only took 10 million..."

"Huh? That's odd" responded the LGT representative. "There is only 99 990 000 yen. You lost the round."

"...What?"

A cell phone rang. The LGT reprensative picked up the phone.

"...Ok. We have 99 990 000 yen here. Ok." The phone call was very quick.

"This is confirmed, Utsumi-san. Your opponent has 100 010 000 yen, and you have 99 990 000. You lost the round"

"...?"


	5. Victory

_**Chapter Five : Victory**_

"Well done, Hazuki-san. You are the winner of the First Round of the Liar Game"

Suzuki hands out a 10 000 yen bill.

"As promised, we take back our 100 000 000 starting MONEY. The remaining 10 000 yen is yours to keep"

"Thanks!"

As Suzuki leaves the usual park where Soma and Hazuki "sleep", Hazuki sighed. He could finally relax.

"Well...10 000 yen. No regrets?" Soma asked.

"No regrets."

"Utsumi should be coming soon."

And one hour later, Utsumi arrived. He was calmed and composed, and didn't look like he wanted to fight.

"Congratulations... I paid my debt with my own money, and I'm free to go. But...Why? and how?"

"How, or why?" asked Hazuki. He was smiling.

"How?" asked the bodybuilder.

"How did we get your money? You better ask Soma, he's the mastermind here."

"Well, let's start by the end. We followed you to your old childhood house and took back our money, with 10 000 yen more."

"How did you know it was my old house?"

"...Well, in this case you need to hear the whole story. When we followed you to your house and work..."

Hazuki finished the sentence : "You were way too confident. This means you used your first three days to hide your money in some place only YOU know about"

"Well, yes. I knew I was being obvious. But so were you! It was obvious you had hidden the cash somewhere in the streets"

"So you wanted us to starve by cutting our income, and make us use our Liar Game money?"

"Yes. But I underestimated you."

"Which brings us to...the attack."

"Oh, that. I still want my brass knuckles back."

Soma threw the knuckles.

"Thanks. Yes, what was that about?"

"Well, think about it. Why did you think no one followed you?"

"Because there was no homele...oh."

"Yes, that was our first trap. We needed you to think we only knew homeless men, and we asked a friend of ours to follow you when you followed us."

"First trap? There's a second?"

"Well, by beating you we could easily guess what you would do if you stole our money...disappear until the end of the month. So that we could follow you to your hideout. You would leave with no money, by fear of getting caught. So all we had to do is get back what's ours."

"...and that's what happened. God, I was played. Every step of the way."

"Yeah" Hazuki laughed.

"So, there was nothing about those serial numbers after all..."

"Nope" Soma smirked. "You should be more discreet following people"

"Okay, so my last question...why? Why did you only take 10 000 yen, when you had two whole weeks to move my entire money?"

"It's because you gave us 300 yen before the game started. Soma and I thought you were a decent man"

"Well, you did break my guitar, but it was under the influence of the game, so I forgive you."

"Heh. So you wanted to teach me a lesson?"

"Not only that" Hazuki reached for his pocket. "I also wanted to eat a hamburger right in front of your face, too."

Hazuki took a bite. Utsumi laughed.

"Thanks, guys. I could have been 100 million in debt. I'm very sorry for what I did."

Utsumi bowed in shame and left the duo.

"Back to our usual lives, I guess." Hazuki yawned and stretched his arms. "I'm sleepy."

"Meh. Let's enjoy the rest of the evening, this is a great day. Oh, I have to see Nozomi and thank her. I'll catch up with you here."

* * *

Nozomi, Soma's former colleague, was the one who followed Utsumi. Aged 34, she is one of the only contacts Soma had with his old life.  
So when Soma asked her to research the background of one Jiro Utsumi, she obliged. Back when Soma was a lawyer, she did way worse than that.  
Soma met her at her house that night and shared a drink with her.

"Well, thanks again for the help. I have another guitar, and..."

"Stop it. I don't care about your guitars or ways to earn money. How about I pay rent for you. Six months, in a motel. Enough time for you to get back a job. Any job. So you'll get some kind of life back."

"Well, this is generous...but I can't accept, this is too much. Either I'll get out of here by my means, or I won't."

"Stupid Soma, you and your pride...well, too bad. If you had won the whole money out of this Round 1, you would have been back on business!"

"Yeah, but our opponent didn't deserve that. At least, that was what my friend was thinking. I would have taken the whole 100 million...wait."

"?"

"I never told you about Round 1. I only asked you to follow someone."

"Oh. Uh..."

"How did you know about the Liar Game?"

"..."

"Nozomi, tell me. I won't do anything..."

"...it's Shinga."

Shinga. Noboru Shinga, the ex best friend of Noboru Soma, who caused his downfall.

"What about Shinga?"

"He...he played the first round too. And he won. 100 million."


End file.
